Bill Tieleman is one of BC's best known communicators, political commentators and strategists.
Bill is a political panelist regularly on CBC Radio and TV in BC and with other media.
Bill has been Communications Director in the B.C. Premier's Office and at the BC Federation of Labour.
Bill owns West Star Communications, a consulting firm providing strategy and communication services for labour, business, non-profits and government.

Sunday, February 01, 2015

Memo to Premier Christy Clark: Public Education Just Won Big in Washington State Supreme Court - Watch Out!

Picture this
education imbroglio: the Supreme Court rules that funding for Kindergarten to
Grade 12 students is completely inadequate and must be remedied immediately
with an infusion of billions of tax dollars every single year -- or else.

Then, after
legislators drag their feet to find the money to hire thousands of teachers and
staff and provide more resources, a visibly angry Supreme Court reconvenes to
find the government itself in contempt of court.

Then, the
judges give the government just one legislative session in 2015 to fix it or
face extraordinary, court-imposed financial and other penalties.

The
government is also ordered to reduce the number of students per overcrowded
classroom to improve learning conditions. That means hiring 7,400 new teachers
and 17,600 other education staff, at a cost of nearly $5 billion through 2019
and $2 billion a year after that.

It may sound
like a wonderful dream for B.C. teachers after their lengthy 2014 strike.*
Currently, they're waiting for an upcoming B.C. Court of Appeal case decision
on class size and composition after a hearing in Oct. 2014.

Not only did
the Washington Supreme Court find in 2012 that constitutional provisions
providing students with an appropriate education were not being met and must be
restored, but in Sept. 2014 it scathingly ruled
unanimously that the government was in contempt of court for refusing to
fulfill its court-ordered remedy.

Washington
State "is engaged in an ongoing violation of its constitutional duty to
K-12 children" and it "has known for decades that its funding of
public education is constitutionally inadequate," the Supreme Court found
in its contempt decision.

Now,
Washington State Democrats and Republicans alike must resolve the education
funding issue in their current 2015 session in the capital, Olympia, or face
withering court sanctions.

And it gets
even better for teachers and students, because in November,

Washington
voters narrowly approved state initiative I-1351
to lower the student-to-teacher ratio to 17 to one for Kindergarten through
Grade 3 from the current average of 24 to one in elementary schools, and to 25
to one from 30 to one for Grades 4 to 12.

That measure
is unrelated to the Supreme Court order, and will cost an estimated $2 billion
more a year to hire 7,400 new teachers and thousands more support staff in the
schools.

So,
what's the lesson?

There is a
lesson from Washington for the government of British Columbia: the best
solution in the face of a potentially devastating court order to spend billions
a year more on education is a negotiated agreement with the BC Teachers'
Federation.

Clark should
see that Washington's dilemma is a harbinger of B.C.'s possible future, and
start talking to the union now rather than answer to an angry Supreme Court of
Canada down the road.

The
alternative for Clark is to find herself in the shoes of Washington State
Democratic Governor Inslee.

"This
unprecedented action by the Supreme Court is a critical moment in our
history," Inslee said
last September. "No one should be surprised, yet no one should minimize
the court's order.

"I
urged lawmakers to act this year and agreed with the court that we must do more
to adequately fund education, which I believe is both a constitutional and

moral
obligation," he concluded.

Washington's
House of Representatives is controlled by Democrats but its Senate is
controlled by Republicans, leaving Inslee with a tough challenge.

Tom Ahearne
is a Seattle attorney who acted for plaintiffs complaining in the 2012 case
that the state is not meeting its constitutional obligations.

"All
the excuses [legislators] tell themselves that they can delay and no one has to
do anything, these are now gone," said Ahearne, who represented parents
Stephanie and Matt McCleary, lead plaintiffs for a group that also includes
Washington's largest teachers' union, school districts and education advocates.

Ahearne
isn't joking. The Washington Supreme Court ruling
could not be clearer:

"The
court has no doubt that it already has the legislature's 'attention.' But that
is not the purpose of a contempt order. Rather, contempt is the means by which
a court enforces compliance with its lawful orders when they are not
followed," the court decision reads.

"These
orders are not advisory or designed only to get the legislature's 'attention';
the court expects them to be obeyed even though they are directed to a
coordinate branch of government. When the orders are not followed, contempt is
the lawful and proper means of enforcement in the orderly administration of
justice," the ruling signed by Chief Justice Barbara Madsen warns.

BC should
pay attention

It all
sounds very much like B.C. Supreme Court Justice Susan Griffin's ruling
in favour of the BCTF and against the BC Liberal government over its ripping up
contract provisions and deliberately trying to provoke a strike in 2011.

"In
Bill-22 the government re-enacted legislation identical to that first branch of
what was previously declared unconstitutional, namely, the deletion and
prohibition of hundreds of collective agreement terms on working
conditions," Griffin wrote.

"When
legislation is struck down as unconstitutional, it means it was never valid,
from the date of its enactment. This means that the legislatively deleted terms
in the teachers' collective agreement have been restored retroactively and can
also be the subject of future bargaining."

Regardless
of how the Washington State situation is resolved by its legislature, one thing
is abundantly clear -- education funding is about to go up substantially as a
result of the court rulings.

The BC
Liberal government would be wise to pay attention and start opening the
channels of communication with the B.C. teachers' union to find a negotiated
solution to the B.C. Court of Appeal case.

Win or lose,
if that case is finally resolved in the Supreme Court of Canada, Christy Clark
may wish she was in Washington Governor Jay Inslee's position instead of her
own, very expensive B.C. one.

Bill Tieleman and Senator Larry Campbell, former Vancouver mayor

Jim Sinclair, Cindy Oliver, Ken Georgetti and Bill Tieleman

Bill Tieleman's coverage of the Basi-Virk/BC Legislature Raid Case praised by other journalists:

"This outstanding piece of journalism, in The Tyee, is the work of a journalist who has been deeply involved with this issue from the start and this article should be passed on as far and wide as possible."

"Bill Tieleman from 24 hours . . . . If you want to know about this trial and about this case, you have to read his blog – I mean, that’s just all there is to it – it’s required reading if you want to understand the BC Legislature Raid situation."

- Mike Smyth, columnist, The Province

"The Basi-Virk case....you’ve probably sat through more of these hearings and gone through more of the files and written about it than any other journalist in the province."

- Bill Good, host, The Bill Good Show, CKNW/Corus Radio Network

"Tieleman ...has done a first-rate job covering the trial."

- Paul Willcocks, columnist, the Victoria Times-Colonist

"Tieleman, who marries a considerable journalistic talent with one of the smartest political minds in the province, has been writing more web-exclusive material. And his coverage of the Basi-Virk trial is a must-read -- whether you're an insider or an outsider."

"24 Hours, the Vancouver paper that has been leading the coverage, as well as the hints of conspiracy in B.C."

- Norman Spector, columnist, Globe and Mail

"Although the major media in this circumstance has been giving the case significant coverage, Tieleman's reports on his blog have been outstanding.

The entire cut and thrust of legal wrangling and arguments has been covered and is accompanied by considered analysis.....His blog site coverage of the Basi-Virk trial is the most in depth treatment of one of British Columbia's biggest political scandals."

- Bill Bell, columnist, The North Shore News

"Mr. Tieleman has published online dispatches which, freed from the limitations of newsprint space or broadcast time, can run at length. They also remain available for those select readers who become obsessed with a case also known as Railgate.....

In another bizarre twist to a story with no shortage of them, Mr. Tieleman went to work one day in December only to discover his office had been ransacked. Bookcases had been tipped over and papers strewn, but nothing was missing.

To top it off, a press kit for the self-published novel The Raid, written by a retired military officer in Metchosin and featuring on its cover a photograph from the 2003 police raid, had been left in a conspicuous place."

- Tom Hawthorn, columnist, The Globe and Mail

Nobody has followed the Basi-Virk affair over its past five years with greater diligence than local journalist, Bill Tieleman....Tieleman deserves our thanks, a fistful of journalism awards and some merit citation for citizenship.